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User / Baz Richardson - often away / St James's Church - Chipping Campden - interior
Baz Richardson / 12,083 items
Much of the present church dates from the 15th century. It is a wool church, vastly extended with profits from the medieval wool trade. About 1490 the nave was reconstructed with its magnificent arcading built on the foundations of the old Norman nave. The great window over the chancel arch was added, a rare feature of church architecture, which provides wonderful light for the nave.

The fine East Window by Henry Payne was completed in 1925 in memory of those who fell in the Great War. The window over the chancel arch represents the last judgment. Preserved behind glass are wonderful survivals from the days before the Reformation: the unique pair of Altar Frontals (c.1500) and the Cope (c.1400). The Altar Frontals were copied by command of Queen Mary for the High Altar of Westminster Abbey for the coronation ceremony in 1912.There are fine 15th century brasses, now secured to the Chancel Floor, the largest of which commemorates William Grevel "...flower of the wool merchants of all England..." The finely carved canopied tomb of Sir Thomas Smythe is on the North wall in the sanctuary and is the most remarkable in the church. He was Lord of the Manor of Campden until his death in 1593. He lived at the court of Henry VIII and was the first Governor of the East India Company.

The Jacobean pulpit and Flemish lectern are gifts from Sir Baptist Hicks, whose ornate tomb is in the Gainsborough Chapel.

The church is regarded by Simon Jenkins as being in the top hundred of England's Thousand Best Churches.
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Dates
  • Taken: Nov 7, 2012
  • Uploaded: Nov 9, 2012
  • Updated: Mar 9, 2019